Hey guys. I have been working on Unsolved.xyz. The idea was to help idea stage entrepreneurs make progress by using a game like mechanism
It looks a little like a mashup between product hunt, stack overflow and startup school.
We are still early and best accessed from a mobile browser. If any of you would consider giving me some feedback, suggestions or just thoughts. I would be grateful
I like the idea. What would be cool if it is freemium for people at the stages of coming up with an idea, and paid once people are getting revenue and their problem is how to increase it. That way it's a no-brainer to pay for it once I am making money anyway.
Hey thanks, We intend to charge $10 a month or $50 a year. We think paying that fee will lend some element of seriousness to the entire exercise.
It's like taking a startup course or program
In return you can test unlimited ideas in parallel, Get To-Dos, attend online events and founder meetups, find collaborators
Would that work?
I feel that the value is higher for the idea stage entrepreneur, vs the person who has customers and revenue.
Once you have customers you should probably listen closely to your customer :)
There is one other thought we are toying with here.
We use the $10 a month to create an investment pool that can be channeled back into the most promising startups emerging from the platform, and distribute the gains back to everyone who contributed.
But it feels super complex from a regulatory angle. We are trying to study Blockchain based utility or security tokens, but not an expert at that
Sounds cool. Do give it a try.
Hey Ishwar I really love this idea. Are you using Data, A.I., ML, etc... to help make decisions? I think you could benefit from Network Effects. The more users = better outcomes = more value for users. This might be of help https://youtu.be/aoeal3ljnqw
Hey Simon
That's encouraging. Yes we do plan to use AI to make the platform more relavant as once the number of startup ideas cross a certain number, it's tough to keep things relevant.
I also understand that the only really moat in the long term is the founders network that eventually gets created
We are live, we are early and best accessed on a mobile browser. Do drop in on Unsolved.xyz and share what you think we should do. Thanks a ton for dropping by
Have you checked out Makerlog? They do something very similar.
I think the difference is you log your to dos in maker log.
While on Unsolved we give idea stage founders to-dos. Like a mentor bot of sorts.
Your linkedin profile link
eg: https://linkedin.com/in/ishwars
*field cannot be empty
P.S - LinkedIn has stopped sharing this, hence we have to ask.
I'm probably the exception here but what if you don't have a LinkedIn?
You can leave it blank :) The profile also allows you to share profile of github, behance or a blog as a substitute. You can complete the profile after you complete initial login process
Overall, I like the idea. What is the incentive for the 'high reputation founders'? Is it that they get the satisfaction of helping early-stage founders (This is why many of them do it). Or, they themselves get some level of points?
We haven't built these out yet
Any suggestions you have on incentives?
I like the idea. Happy to give feedback.
Thanks @girishw. Can I invite you to play with www.unsolved.xyz from a mobile browser.
We are live, so trying should be easy.
I welcome thoughts, feedback and suggestions
-The website copy does not bring out what is unique about Unsolved. It is not clear from the copy how it is different from communities like IH. I would stress some of the points you made in this post.
Hey @girishw. I have been reqorking and rethinking what we are building. I have developed a new landing page. Keen to hear what you think
https://skull-mint-1585134525.versoly.com/
Wow, that is a huge improvement. I like it.
I have redone the prize-ing section.
https://skull-mint-1585134525.versoly.com/
Looks good. A couple of comments :
Thanks Girish. Agree on the complexity. And I thought equity free may attract more startups.
Have a revised landing page, that is significantly changed.
If you can take a look again, I would really appreciate it.
https://skull-mint-1585134525.versoly.com/
Responding to your newest post.
The messaging seems to be coming together; it looks like you are converging to something like a "virtual incubator" positioning.
I would also test this with a lot of other people, because it is a novel idea. The timing might be good because of the current COVID crisis.
We decided to go with online startup accelerator, as we found the better self started startups where rejecting the incubator positioning.
but the incubator stage startups were ok with an "Accelerate your startup" positioning.
We felt we need the better startups so other startups can learn from them
That makes sense 👌
A couple of points on the landing page:
Each of those has a lot of pre-determined associaated with it, so choose carefully.
Hope that helps!
I have updated with the suggestions you shared and some feedback from others as well.
https://skull-mint-1585134525.versoly.com/
Thanks again for engaging this much. I can't believe it
It really does thanks
Yes thinking of a 7 days free trial.
Will rework "Prize"ing
But the concept is the $10 you pay goes into a prize pool.
(Like a tournament in poker)
Every month a few startups that have made the most progress, get to pitch for the pool.
(Think final table in poker)
Winners are picked by a combined vote of seasoned investors and the community.
Winners exchange 2% equity to the platform, for the prize pool
This is great feedback.
My to-dos
I will revisit the landing page and share a revised one soon. We didn't have these features well thought out earlier. We realised we need them after we had the first few users
Making content relevant, by stage or networks that you are interested in
Will check on the feed tab from multiple devices. It works for me right now
We do have a metric called Success score for startups coming up in the next version, a score populated by To-Dos completed and community validation etc
I like it! Customizing and curating that user journey will really set you apart from the "free for all" entrepreneur / maker communities.
Thanks, we have been wondering what our reason to exist was. And we thought there were enough Idea Stage founders with no idea what to do next.
So we broadly split the stages into
Research - Market, Customer, Competitors
Define - Landing page, one liner
Test - Test launch
Build MVP - Easy No Code or Low Code, DIY Tools
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We were also trying to create a daily online meetup using airmeet.com or crowdcast.io where we have one idea being pitched and discussed every day.
And we just promote that as a property.
" Let's discuss One New Idea at 9pm"
Thanks help always required. We are planning on creating content that helps decode how repeat founders research startup ideas, why they pursue the ones they do. So it helps first timers learn how to think.
We will also be linking to content across the web, to help people complete to-dos
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Thanks I will definitely reach out. Are there any suggestions you have on what we could do to drive growth or virality
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Got that. Thanks makes a ton of sense